ACL 2023 ~ The Year in Review

Music offers stability in unstable times, but in 2023, the ground beneath the music industry continued to shift.  This year’s top stories: an explosion in musical releases, the sale of Bandcamp, the publication of an ACL-related book and a glimpse at the possible future of music.  This month marks our twelfth anniversary; we thank all of you for your support!  We love what we do, and we hope you love what you read.  Across the next two weeks, we’ll be sharing our Year-End Charts; it’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Our cover image is “Piano Suite No. 1” ©Yurii Nagulko, internal art from Nadia Shpachenko’s Invasion: Music and Art for Ukraine, which includes a wide swath of Ukrainian artists.

Musical Explosion:  Our in-boxes were full this fall as we faced the biggest burst of music we’d ever seen, topping even pandemic times.  The glut exposes a major problem in the industry: with instrumental releases only appearing at an average of one every hour (and this is a low estimate, simply doubling the amount received by our site), paid review sites virtually non-existent and the others divided between solo blogs and group contributions such as A Closer Listen, it has become harder than ever to get heard.  Ambient is the most prolific genre, accounting for approximately half of all our submissions ~ an average of 42 a week, suggesting that as many as a dozen ambient albums are released every day.  We listen to at least samples of everything that comes in, sorting through the surplus, but our hearts break for all the artists out there who are yearning for a larger audience.

Twitter, X, Bandcamp and Songtradr:  Two major changes occurred this year, one that impacted our social media accounts and another that threatens the way music is heard.  We were already disenchanted with Twitter when it became X, so we weren’t that bummed when WordPress dropped it (a reasonable move, considering the fact that X wanted WordPress to pay more to include them).  But after building a social media audience of over 20,000, this meant we had to start hand-posting while waiting for a better alternative.  The sale of Bandcamp to Songtradr was more disconcerting, as it began with a purge of half the staff and continued with union-busting.  We’ve loved Bandcamp ever since its inception and have relied on it as our favorite way to share music (followed by Soundcloud and YouTube), the advantage being that the artists benefit as well as the labels.  Bandcamp Fridays have been a staple of savings, with proceeds going only to the artists; there’s no viable alternative in the industry, so musicians are waiting with bated breath to see what happens next.

On a brighter note, Gianmarco Del Re‘s labor of love, Ukrainian Field Notes, not only continued to be published in earnest on our site, but resulted in the publication of a book and accompanying 86-track album.  We’re extremely proud of the attention that Gianmarco has brought to the plight of the Ukrainian people, while chronicling the experiences of making music in a time of war.  170 interviews bring the war to life in real time, covering the first year since the invasion.  This unique document can be purchased here, while updates and current Ukrainian releases appear monthly on our site.

Finally, we zeroed in on a positive ~ and possible ~ future direction for the music we love, epitomized by Aho Ssan’s Rhizomes: collaborative, cross-cultural and genre-fluid.  Throughout 2023, and possibly aided in recent years by the forced distance of the pandemic, we’ve watched music edging in this direction, with multiple artists engaging in cross-genre collaborations with artists from different nations and backgrounds.  No longer guest stars, these artists have now become compositional partners.  If the industry heads in this direction, as we believe it will, we’ll have plenty to be excited about in 2024: new hybrid sounds, unexpected juxtapositions, and a parable for our times: that what unites us can still be stronger than what divides us.

We are grateful for everyone who makes music or is involved in the music industry.  You produce beauty where beauty is essential, and remind us of the creative spirit that provides empathy, solace and hope.  Thank you for sharing your gifts.   (Richard Allen)

We return tomorrow with The Year’s Best Winter Music!